scholarly journals From Satan’s Wager to Eve’s Gambit to Our Leap: An Anselmian Reply to the Problem of Divine Hiddenness

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-85
Author(s):  
Travis Dumsday
Keyword(s):  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
Explicit Discussion

While St. Anselm does not supply us with an explicit discussion of the problem of divine hiddenness (PDH) as it is typically conceived today—namely, as an argument for atheism—he is keenly aware of the existential difficulty posed by our seeming lack of access to God. Moreover, he provides the ingredients for an interesting and heretofore neglected approach to the PDH, one rooted in multiple Christian narratives about lapses from knowledge-infused states of grace, both angelic and human. The goal of this paper is to draw out that Anselmian approach explicitly, and to provide at least a rudimentary assessment of it.

On the Axiology of a Hidden God

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk Lougheed
Keyword(s):  
Correct Answer ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
Hidden God

The axiological question in the philosophy of religion is the question of what impact, if any, God’s existence does (or would) make to the axiological value of our world. It has recently been argued that we should prefer a theistic world where God is hidden to an atheistic world or a theistic world where God isn’t hidden. This is because in a hidden theistic world all of the theistic goods obtain in addition to the experience of atheistic goods. I complete this line of argument by showing that theistic goods do (or could) indeed obtain in a world where God hides. In doing so I indirectly argue against proponents of divine hiddenness arguments such as J.L. Schellenberg. The correct answer to the axiological question turns out to be a solution to the problem of divine hiddenness.

The Problem of Divine Hiddenness

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Rea
Keyword(s):  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Philosophical Discussion ◽  
Detailed Characterization ◽  
The Past ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter provides a detailed characterization of the various meanings of the term “divine hiddenness,” carefully and rigorously articulates the version of the problem of divine hiddenness that has dominated contemporary philosophical discussion for the past twenty-five years, and then explains the relationship between that problem and the problem of evil.

scholarly journals No Abiding City: Hume, Naturalism, and Toleration

Philosophy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Clark
Keyword(s):  
Political Regime ◽  
Attractive Alternative ◽  
Natural Religion ◽  
Political Drama ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Naturalistic Account ◽  
Humean Theory ◽  
Explicit Discussion

AbstractThis paper rereads David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion as dramatising a distinctive, naturalistic account of toleration. I have two purposes in mind: first, to complete and ground Hume's fragmentary explicit discussion of toleration; second, to unearth a potentially attractive alternative to more recent, Rawlsian approaches to toleration. To make my case, I connect Dialogues and the problem of toleration to the wider themes of naturalism, scepticism and their relation in Hume's thought, before developing a new interpretation of Dialogues part 12 as political drama. Finally, I develop the Humean theory of toleration I have discovered by comparison between Rawls's and Hume's strategies for justification of a tolerant political regime.

scholarly journals Kantian Dilemmas? Moral Conflict in Kant’s Ethical Theory

2013 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Timmermann
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Conflict ◽  
Ought Implies Can ◽  
Ethical Duty ◽  
Kant's Ethics ◽  
Explicit Discussion

Abstract: This paper explores the possibility of moral conflict in Kant’s ethics. An analysis of the only explicit discussion of the topic in his published writings confirms that there is no room for genuine moral dilemmas. Conflict is limited to nonconclusive ‘grounds’ of obligation. They arise only in the sphere of ethical duty and, though defeasible, ought to be construed as the result of valid arguments an agent correctly judges to apply in the situation at hand. While it is difficult to determine in theory what makes some of them stronger than others, these ‘grounds’ can account for practical residue in conflict cases and for a plausible form of agent regret. The principle that ‘ought implies can’ survives intact.

Divine Hiddenness

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Paul K. Moser
Keyword(s):  
Divine Hiddenness

scholarly journals Hope and the Problem of Divine Silence

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 157-178
Author(s):  
Aaron D. Cobb
Keyword(s):  
Human Agency ◽  
Personal Concern ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
Ability To Act

The silence of God either by itself or in circumstances of profound suffering can induce hopelessness and despair, eroding a person’s ability to act in ways conducive to her own good. Given the role of hope in human agency, the loss of hope is an event of a significant moral and personal concern. And the standard responses to the problem of divine hiddenness may not address the existential crises occasioned by God’s silence. This paper seeks to develop and address this challenge by evaluating two potential responses to the problem of despair-inducing experience of divine silence.

scholarly journals Desiring the Hidden God: Knowledge Without Belief

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Julian Perlmutter
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Sacred Music ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Personal Significance ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
Hidden God

For many people, the phenomenon of divine hiddenness is so total that it is far from clear to them that God (roughly speaking, the God of Jewish and Christian tradition) exists at all. Reasonably enough, they therefore do not believe that God exists. Yet it is possible, whilst lacking belief in God’s reality, nonetheless to see it as a possibility that is both realistic and attractive; and in this situation, one will likely want to be open to the considerable benefits that would be available if God were real. In this paper I argue that certain kinds of desire for God can aid this non-believing openness. It is possible to desire God even in a state of non-belief, since desire does not require belief that its object exists. I argue that if we desire God in some particular capacity, and with some sense of what would constitute satisfaction, then through the desire we have knowledge – incomplete yet vivid in its personal significance – about the attributes God would need in order to satisfy us; thus, if God is real and does have those attributes, one knows something about God through desiring him. Because desire does not require belief, neither does the knowledge in question. Expanding on recent work by Vadas and Wynn, I sketch the epistemology of desire needed to support this argument. I then apply this epistemology to desire for God. An important question is how one might cultivate the requisite kinds desire for God; and one way, I argue, is through engaging with certain kinds of sacred music. I illustrate desire’s religiously epistemic power in this context, before replying to two objections.

God’s Awful Majesty Before Our Eyes: Kant’s Moral Justification for Divine Hiddenness

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-157
Author(s):  
Tyler Paytas
Keyword(s):  
Moral Justification ◽  
Moral Law ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
Self Interest

AbstractThe problem of ‘divine hiddenness’ arises from the lack of an explanation for why an all-loving God would choose not to make his existence evident. I argue that Kant provides a compelling solution to this problem in an often overlooked passage located near the end of the second Critique. Kant’s suggestion is that God’s revealing himself would preclude the development of virtue because we would lose the experience of conflict between self-interest and the moral law. I provide a reconstruction and defence of Kant’s argument, and I explain why it is consistent with his overall position in the second Critique.

Divine hiddenness: Part 2 (recent enlargements of the discussion)

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. e12413 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Schellenberg
Keyword(s):  
Divine Hiddenness
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